The path from South American football to European football is a well trodden one.
Whether from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Chile or any other country, there’s a a generally accepted norm that is when a player is of a certain standard, they will move to one of the elite leagues in Europe.
More often than not that will be the Spanish top-flight, and La Liga has certainly seen its fair share of great South American players over the years.
Alfredo di Stefano, Lionel Messi, Ronaldo, Romario, Rivaldo, Neymar, Marcelo, Diego Simeone, Pablo Aimar, Diego Maradona, Angel Di Maria, Gonzalo Higuain, Dani Alves, Javier Hernandez, Rafa Marquez, Ronaldinho and Diego Costa are just a few.
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Now there’s a new name on the scene, and the wunderkind is only 15 years of age.
There’s already huge interest in Palmeiras star, Endrick, but the player is trying to keep his feet on the ground.
In a recent interview with Sport, he admitted that all Brazilians want to play for Barcelona, and that will surely have come as a huge boost to the embattled Catalan outfit.
“All the boys who want to play abroad think about Barca because of Neymar Jr. who is from our generation,” he said.
“If the day comes when it’s time to leave, maybe Barca will be an option […] Barca are a very good team.”
Whether that might be considered enough of a come and get me plea to Joan Laporta and co will only be seen over the course of the next couple of seasons.
The club may even have to consider doing what Real Madrid did with Vinicius and putting money down well before the player can make the move to Europe in order to keep Endrick from the clutches of other interested parties.